1779, Fryday July 30.

We are not yet arrived to the Bane of St. George. Calms, contrary { 400 } Winds &c. detain Us. Saw a Whale spouting and blowing and leaping to day in our Wake—a
Grampus they say.

Docno: ADMS-01-02-02-0009-0006-0007

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1779-07-31

1779 July 31 Saturday.

Found Bottom this Morning on St. Georges Bane. The Weather, the Wind, the Discovery
of our Longitude, give Us all, fine Spirits this Morning. The Wind is as good as We
could wish it. We are now about to pass the Day and Night of greatest Danger. By the
present Appearances, We are highly favoured. But Appearances are often deceitful.

At the Moment I am writing a thick fog comes up, on all Sides, as if directed specially
to conceal us from our Ennemies.

I am not so presumptuous as to flatter myself that these happy Circumstances are all
ordered for the Preservation of this Frigate, but not to remark them would be Stupidity,
not to rejoice in them would be Ingratitude.

If We should be prospered so much as to arrive well, what News shall We find public
or private? We may find Dissappointments on Shore.—But our Minds should be prepared
for all.1

1. St. George's Bank is about 100 miles east of Cape Cod. On 3 Aug. the Sensible entered Boston Harbor.

“His Excellency [La Luzerne] and suit landed on General Hancock's wharf, about 5 o'Clock
the same afternoon, where they were received by a Committee from the Hon. Council
of this State, who were waiting with carriages for their reception; they were conducted
to the house late the residence of the Continental General. He was saluted by a discharge
of 13 cannon on his landing, from the fortress on Fort-Hill, and every other mark
of respect shewn him which circumstances would admit” (Boston Evening Post and General Advertiser, 7 Aug. 1779).

From the last entry in JA's accounts printed at the end of 1778, above, it would appear that JA and JQA left the Sensible in Nantasket Roads and were rowed to Braintree on 2 August. But in a letter addressed
to President John Jay from Braintree on 3 Aug., JA gives that day as the date of his arrival—in the letterbook copy as at “Boston Harbour,” and
in the recipient's copy as at “Nantasket Road” (LbC, Adams Papers; RC, PCC, No. 84, I). The letter to Jay introduces La Luzerne and Marbois in very favorable
terms.

Took Leave of my Family, and rode to Boston with my Son Charles, nine years of Age
last May. At four O Clock went on board the french Frigate the Sensible, Mr. Thaxter,2 my Son John, twelve Years old last July, and my Servant Joseph Stevens having come
on Board in the Morning.—I find the Frigate crouded with Passengers, and Sailors,
full 350 Men. They have recruited a great Number here.3

1. First entry in “P[aper] B[ook] No. 30” as labeled and numbered by CFA (our D/JA/30), an unstitched gathering of leaves without cover bearing the { 401 } following title in JA's hand on the front leaf: “Journal from 13 Nov. 1779 to 6. January 1780.”

On 9 Aug. JA had been elected to represent Braintree in the convention called to frame a new state
constitution (Braintree Town Records, p. 503). He attended the plenary sessions of that body in the First Church in Cambridge,
1–7 Sept., and presumably again from 28 Oct. to 11 Nov.— that is, throughout its second
session, which ended two days before he sailed again for Europe. On 4 Sept. he was
named one of a committee of thirty members to draft “a Declaration of Rights, and
the Form of a Constitution,” to be laid before the Convention at its second session
(Mass. Constitutional Convention, 1779–1780, Jour., p. 26). The payroll records of the Massachusetts Council indicate that he was paid
£90 for twenty-five days' attendance at committee meetings between the first and second
sessions (M-Ar: vol. 170, fol. 413; vol. 171, fol. 20). JA told Edmund Jenings in a letter of 7 June 1780: “I was by the Convention put upon the Committee—by the Committee upon the Subcommittee—and
by the Subcommittee appointed a Sub Sub Committee—so that I had the honour to be principal
Engineer” (Adams Papers). He was in fact sole draftsman of the earliest form of the instrument which, after
some revisions in committee and others in convention, none of them drastic, was adopted
by the people in 1780 and is still in force as the organic law of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, though amended from time to time by later constitutional conventions.
With its simple but eloquent preamble on the principle of government by compact, its
elevated Declaration of Rights, and its unprecedented clauses requiring state support
for education and the encouragement of “literature and the sciences,” it is JA's chief monument as a political thinker. In editing his grandfather's writings CFA provided a carefully edited text of the Constitution of 1780, together with commentary
and notes showing the modifications of the author's draft (so far as it was then possible
to do so) through the point of its adoption by the Convention in its third session,
Jan.–March 1780 (Works, 4:213–267). Though JA's MS appears to be irretrievably lost, copies of the 1779 printings annotated by members
while the Convention was in progress have now come to light, and these will make possible
a more complete and accurate presentation of the evolution of the text. See entry
of 19 Dec., below, and note 1 there.

Meanwhile, on 27 Sept. 1779, after “a great deal of disagreeable altercation and debate,”
JA was elected by Congress, on the nomination of Henry Laurens, minister plenipotentiary
to negotiate treaties of peace and commerce with Great Britain, and John Jay was elected
minister to Spain, leaving Arthur Lee, who was persona non grata to the French government, without a post (JCC, 15:1107–1113; John Fell, Diary, in Burnett, ed., Letters of Members, 4:439, 449; see also p. 437–438, 442–450; Lovell to JA, 27, 28 Sept. [1] and [2], Adams Papers; Gerry to JA, 29 Sept., same; and Gérard, Despatches and Instructions, p. 100–118, 893–898). Thus was settled an issue which had agitated Congress for
months and of which perhaps the most lucid account is that by Burnett in his Continental Congress, ch. 23. JA's commissions (dated 29 Sept.) and his instructions (see below) were forwarded to him in a letter of 20 Oct. from Samuel Huntington, who had replaced Jay as president of Congress upon the latter's
appointment to Spain (Adams Papers; printed in Works, 7:119–120). The instructions, though dated 16 Oct., had been adopted by Congress as early as 14 Aug., and the French minister in Philadelphia
had had a material part in framing them (JCC, 14:956–966; copied, together with the commissions, from the originals in the Adams Papers, into JA's Autobiography at the beginning of its third and last section, entitled “Peace”).
JA accepted his appointment in a letter to Huntington of 4 Nov. (LbC, Adams Papers; also copied into his Autobiography). Gérard and La Luzerne proposed that he take
passage in the Sensible, which was still in Boston Harbor, and gave orders to Capt. Chavagnes to that effect
(La Luzerne to JA, 29 Sept. 1779, Adams Papers; copied into JA's Autobiography along with an { 402 } undated letter from La Luzerne to Chavagnes).

2. John Thaxter Jr. (1755-1791), of Hingham, Harvard 1774, first cousin to AA through her aunt, Anna (Quincy) Thaxter. He had studied law in JA's office from 1774 until his admission to the bar in 1777, had at the same time been
tutor to the Adams sons, and in 1778 had served as clerk in the office of the Secretary
of Congress at York and Philadelphia, He was now going to Europe as JA's private secretary, a post he held until Sep. 1783, when he returned to America
bringing the Definitive Treaty with Great Britain. He later settled in Haverhill and
practiced law there. This note is largely based on Thaxter's correspondence with various
members of the Adams famiy in the Adams Papers and a small collection of Thaxter family papers in MHi: see also History of the Town of Hingham, Mass. [Hingham,] 1893, 3:233; MHS, Procs., 1st ser., 19 (1881–1882):152, 158; JA, Works, 3:354–355, 383; Burnett, ed., Letters of Members, 7:377.

3. On the 14th the Sensible fell down to King's Roads (now President Roads), and on the 15th it sailed about
10 A.M. CJQA, Diary, 15 Nov. 1779; Francis Dana, Journal, 1779–1780, MHi).